Ubitricity, a German company, is focusing on how to bring its cost-effective, convenient electric car charging to the United Kingdom.
Two years ago the company launched its streetlight car charging ports in Germany, but the company is now looking to bring the service to the UK. Recently the Fully Charged Show did a video exposé on how the streetlight charging stations function, which can be seen above.
The streetlight chargers are easy to use, which should be especially helpful in West London due to the lack of charging stations there. It’s also important to note that the UK has a much higher population density than the US meaning that it can quickly get competitive trying to get access to a charging station.
Those who sign up for the service receive a charging cable with the correct billing and metering information, then they simply plug into an equipped streetlight.
The company has installed the first wave of chargers in some of the old streetlights in older neighborhoods of London and in new LED street lamps. The idea of converting street lamps to electric vehicle charging stations is attractive to London and similar cities which struggle to build new infrastructure to keep up with the growing adoption of electric vehicles.
The streetlight charging stations can’t use fast-charging options, so they are meant more for overnight and full-day parking charging.
As adoption of electric vehicles increases over the next few years and decades, infrastructure will have to change to keep up with it. The Ubitricity street lamp is one option for expanding infrastructure quickly and cheaply.
